GAME PREVIEW

• With just six games left in the regular season, Sacramento State (6-19, 2-10) hosts Northern Arizona (14-12, 5-8) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
• The Hornets fell to Northern Colorado, 77-61, on Thursday at the Nest, while the Lumberjacks lost on the road at Portland State, 58-46.
• Saturday will mark the first of just three remaining games in the Nest. Sacramento State, which began playing games in the Nest in 1955, will move to The Well next season. The project will convert a portion of The Well, an on-campus fitness facility, into a venue for both men's and women's basketball, and will seat around 3,000 fans.
• The Hornets have lost six straight, but three of those losses have come by six points or less. The team's last victory was a 75-71 home win over Idaho State on Jan. 23.
• Sacramento State is 5-8 at home, and 2-4 vs. Big Sky opposition. That includes a win over third-place Portland State in the conference opener.
• The Hornets have dealt with a plethora of injuries this season, and that really came to a head on Thursday when the team played without three starting guards (Bailey Nunn, Julian Vaughns, Alex Kovatchev). In addition, the team is without key rotational forward Bowyn Beatty. It was Beatty who started a game two days before he was injured.
• Freshman walk-on guard Leo Ricketts was called on to play all 40 minutes on Thursday.
• Northern Arizona has dropped four of its last five games, and has lost three straight on the road. The Lumberjacks began the conference season with a 4-4 record, but have fallen on tough times of late.
• NAU is 5-8 on the road, and 2-5 vs. Big Sky opposition away from home.
• Sacramento State is 18-46 all-time against Northern Arizona, including four straight losses (and seven of the last eight) in the series. The Hornets lost to NAU in Flagstaff earlier this season by a 77-53 score. That was Sacramento State's second most lopsided loss of the conference season, trailing an 87-59 defeat to Montana in Missoula.
• The Hornets are 11-19 against NAU at home, and have split the last four meetings in the Nest. That includes a 59-56 win on Jan. 14, 2023. Two of the last three meetings in the Nest have been decided by three points or less.
• NAU has two of the Big Sky's top players in senior guard Trent McLaughlin and junior forward Carson Towt. McLaughlin is sixth in the nation at 21.2 ppg, and Towt, who averages a double-double (13.1 ppg, 12.8 rpg) leads the country in rebounding.

MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS

• Every game the remainder of the season (home and away) will stream on ESPN+.
• For the fourth straight season, all Hornet home games, and games played at a Big Sky Conference venue, will stream on ESPN+. The subscription-based service streams on watchespn.com and the ESPN App.
• Steve McElroy, in his 28th year as the play-by-play voice, is on the call for home games.
• Links for all multimedia options, including live stats for every game, can be found next to each game on the men's basketball schedule at hornetsports.com.

A LOOK AT THE LAST MEETING (HORNETS VS. JACKS)

• Four Northern Arizona players scored in double figures, led by Trenton McLaughlin's 21 points, as the Lumberjacks defeated Sacramento State, 77-53, on Jan. 16 in Flagstaff.
• NAU jumped out to 8-0 and 14-2 leads as the Hornets missed nine of their first 10 shots from the field.
• The Lumberjacks went into halftime with a 45-23 lead, before taking the second half by just a 32-30 margin. The biggest difference in the game was the 3-point line where NAU was 12-for-27 (44%) while Sacramento State was just 5-of-29 (17%). The Lumberjacks finished the game 46% (27-59) from the field while the Hornets were 34% (19-56).
• For the Hornets, Jacob Holt posted his fourth double-double in the last five games with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Five of those boards came on the offensive glass, as he converted eight field goals and a pair of free throws.
• Joining Holt in double figures was Julian Vaughns who matched his career high with 18 points, including four assists and three 3-balls. No other Hornet player scored more than six. EJ Neal had six points, Chudi Dioramma four points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots, and Michael Wilson posted a career-best seven rebounds to go with two steals.

INJURY BUG GO AWAY

• Sacramento State has dealt with injuries a good portion of the season to key players.
• Guard Alex Kovatchev, after starting each of the first four games, has missed 21 consecutive games with injury. His status for the rest of the season is in question.
• Emil Skytta, who started 41 consecutive games dating back to last season, missed seven straight games until returning last week. He is working his way back into game shape.
• Seven-foot forward Bowyn Beatty, a rotational player who appeared in each of the first 16 games (including a start two days before his injury), has missed nine straight games.
• Guards Bailey Nunn and Julian Vaughns both missed Thursday's game vs. Northern Colorado. Both players had started every Big Sky game until Thursday.
• So, the Hornets played Thursday night's game minus three starters (Nunn, Kovatchev, Vaughns) and a player in Beatty who had just cracked the starting lineup prior to injury.
• Nunn and Vaughns are both questionable for Saturday afternoon's game while Beatty and Kovatchev are out.

PROVIDING A SPARK

• Due, in part, to the multitude of injuries, a pair of walk-ons have been inserted into the rotation - guards Michael Wilson and Leo Ricketts - and both are receiving good minutes.
• Ricketts, a true freshman walk-on, played all 40 minutes vs. Northern Colorado, finishing with 11 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. He did not play each of the first 16 games of the season until cracking the rotation at NAU on Jan. 16. He is averaging 5.4 ppg on 46% shooting, and has scored in double figures twice in the last four games.
• Wilson, in his second season with the Hornets, has played 31+ minutes in three of the last five games, and has been a fixture in the rotation the last 10 games. In league play, he is averaging 6.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals while shooting 34% from 3PT.
• Wilson played 38 minutes in the team's 68-64 road loss at Northern Colorado.

INTERNATIONAL ROSTER

• Sacramento State has players representing six different countries - Australia (5), United States (5), Canada (1), England (1), Finland (1) and South Sudan (1).
• In addition, Sacramento State has players from four of the seven continents - North America, Africa, Europe and Australia.
• The Hornets' head coach, Michael Czepil, is from Melbourne, Australia, and took the team on a trip to Sydney, Gold Coast and Melbourne during the summer.

THE CZEPIL ERA

• Sacramento State is under the guidance of interim head Michael Czepil (Zep-pull). David Patrick, who coached the Hornets the previous two seasons, stepped down on May 22 to become the associate head coach at LSU.
• Czepil spent the previous two seasons on Patrick's staff as the associate head coach.
• A native of Melbourne, Australia, Czepil entered the season with 14 years of collegiate, international and professional coaching experience. He arrived at Sacramento State after spending four seasons at UC Riverside (2018-22), including two as associate head coach.

GOING YOUNG

• Sacramento State has a 14-man roster, and nine of those players are underclassmen (six sophomores, three freshmen) with just two seniors.
• In most games, the team uses a nine-man rotation that includes three freshmen (Dioramma, Ricketts, Brewer) and three sophomores (Nunn, Skytta, Wilson).
• Thursday vs. Northern Colorado, Sacramento State used an eight-man rotation that included three freshmen, a pair of sophomores, two seniors and junior Deonte Williams who is a JC transfer. Williams scored a season-high 10 points against the Bears.

10 MINUTE MARK TELLS THE TALE

• The 10 minute mark of the second half is a great indicator of whether or not the Hornets will win or lose. When trailing with 10 minutes to play, the team is 0-17. When leading at the 10-minute mark, Sacramento State is 6-2.
• In addition, the team is 5-0 when leading at the five minute mark, but 1-17 when trailing with five minutes to go, and 0-2 when tied at five minutes.

SLOW STARTS

• In six of the team's 10 conference losses, Sacramento State fell victim to extremely slow starts it could never quite overcome.
• At home against Idaho, the Vandals jumped out to a 22-11 lead.
• At home, Eastern Washington had a 27-10 lead as the Hornets did not score their fourth point until the 11:25 mark of the first half.
• Northern Arizona jumped out to a 25-7 lead as Sacramento State did not score its fourth point until the 12:29 mark of the first half.
• Weber State got off to an 18-7 lead in the Nest.
• Montana jumped out to a 25-11 lead last weekend in Missoula.
• On Thursday vs. Northern Colorado, the Bears jumped out to a 25-6 lead at the 9:44 mark.

DEFENSIVELY SPEAKING

• Overall, Sacramento State leads the Big Sky in scoring defense (69.7 ppg), and ranks second in field goal percentage defense (.428).
• That has helped the Hornets stay in games despite an offense that ranks last in the league at 66.9 points per game.
• The defense would be even better if not for the losses of Emil Skytta and Alex Kovatchev to injury - the top two defenders on the team. Although Skytta did come back last week.

VAUGHNS' HOT STREAK

• Prior to missing Thursday's game with injury, Julian Vaughns was averaging a team-best 15.5 points over the last eight games. That includes five games with 17+ points
• During the stretch, he is shooting 45% (18-40) from the 3-point line, and has gotten to the free throw line 28 times (51 free throw attempts all season).
• He had 18 points at Northern Arizona, 21 vs. Idaho State, 17 vs. Weber State, 19 at Montana State, and 19 more at Idaho.
• In conference play, he is shooting a proficient 41% (22-54) from beyond the 3-point arc.
 
HOLT'S BIG SEASON HAS SLOWED OF LATE

• Senior forward Jacob Holt has established himself as one of the top players in the Big Sky. In league play, he ranks among the conference's top players in scoring (7th, 15.0 ppg), rebounding (4th, 7.3 rpg) and blocks (4th, 0.9).
• He has scored in double digits in all but seven games this season. However, four of those single digit efforts have come in the last five games.
• He went 9 points at Montana Sate, 9 points at Montana, 32 points at Eastern Washington, season-low four points at Idaho, and six on Thursday vs. Northern Colorado.
• He's had two 30-point games, including 35 points at home vs. Idaho on Jan. 9.
• He was Big Sky Player of the Week on Dec. 31, and has four double-doubles. Holt has scored in double figures 18 times, including eight 20-point efforts.
• If the season ended today, his 15.7 ppg scoring average (overall) would be the highest for a Hornet since Bryce Fowler averaged 19.0 ppg during the 2021-22 season.
 
FINAL SEASON IN THE NEST

• Sacramento State will embark upon its final year in the Nest. Next season, the team will move into the The Well on campus.
• The project will convert a portion of The Well, an on-campus fitness facility, into a venue for both the men's and women's basketball teams. The Well sits next to the football field on the south end of campus. Seating capacity will likely be around 3,000.
• Built in 1955, the Nest is currently one of the oldest (and smallest) facilities among all NCAA Div. I institutions with a seating capacity of only 1,012.
• The Hornets have played in the Nest every year since 1955, except four seasons (1996-00) when they played at downtown Memorial Auditorium. Those four seasons were also the team's first four in the Big Sky Conference.

TALE OF TWO HALVES

• Sacramento State is being outscored by 9.0 ppg during the first half against Big Sky opposition. The Hornets have done a nice job in the second half, being outscoring the opposition by 0.3 points after halftime.